Author's Note: The timeline at the end of this episode never quite made sense to me as Amanda was attempting to explain where she was the night before, but she is wearing a different outfit than the one she was wearing when she disappeared on Lee after his capture of the Baron. It almost seemed as if they were trying to make it seem as if another day had passed which doesn't make sense since Amanda is talking about why she didn't come home "last night." I thought that would be a perfect place to add a filler scene to explain it and make it make sense. Hope you like it.
Chapter 23-I'm Supposed to Do That.
"The Times, They Are-A Changing"
Lee found Amanda in the crowd after capturing the Baron, approaching her saying, "Well, did you spot your mother and the boys?"
Amanda pointed and whispered, "They're right over there."
When Lee turned to look, she took off weaving through the crowd to give him a taste of his own medicine as he'd been doing to her during this whole trip.
"Where?" Lee said as he turned the direction she'd pointed to see Dotty West's retreating figure, her arms around her grandsons. He turned back around to find her gone and couldn't help but smile as he said to himself, "Hey, I'm supposed to do that," with a shake of his head. He scanned the crowd as he made his way through the throngs of people, figuring she'd gone the direction of her family. It wasn't long before he caught a glimpse of sunlight glinting off the bright blue sequins in the outfit she'd borrowed from Francine. He quickly followed her and to his surprise, she didn't meet up with her mother. Instead, she veered the opposite direction, back toward the Hilton.
Amanda smiled brightly, knowing that Lee was behind her. She'd known that he would look for her as soon as she disappeared just as he had at the football camp. She'd counted on his skill as a spy to figure out which way she went. Without looking back, she kept up the pace she'd begun, knowing that he wasn't far behind her. Her smile widened with anticipation as she knew that her mother had planned on doing some more shopping after their trip to the Glockenspiel, followed by taking the boys to lunch, giving her the afternoon free and she knew just how she wanted to spend that time. Lee had been teasing her mercilessly for the past few days, maybe not intentionally, but he had. He had been continually putting his arm around her when they walked together, then had clasped her hand tightly when she'd nearly been run down. He'd even gone as far as to put his arm around her in front of Francine and Billy when she'd talked about making sure that they got Haddy back to his little boy. That had surprised her more than anything else. She knew by the look in her eyes that the gesture had not been lost on Francine. She smiled smugly at the thought that at least once, she'd gotten one over on Francine, not only that Lee didn't seem bothered by showing her affection in front of her, but by Billy's insistence that she lend her a gown.
"What the hell is she doing," Lee grumbled as he watched her enter the lobby of the Hilton and quickly make her way to the elevator. Why was she going back to her room? He'd have thought that since she'd been so worried about family, she'd immediately want to meet up with them. After she'd entered the elevator, he quickly sprinted to the doorway leading to the stairs, taking them two at a time, not willing to let her get away from him without an explanation for her rapid departure.
"What the hell am I doing?" he questioned himself as he exited the stairwell on her floor. Why was he once again chasing Amanda? What was it about her that made him want to chase her? He stopped to catch his breath, stripping off the bowtie he still wore from the night before and stripped off his jacket, slinging it over one arm, just in time to see the object of his chase exit the elevator and walk leisurely toward her room. He quietly followed behind her, catching up to her just as she unlocked the door, grabbing her by the arm, causing her to screech.
"Oh, hi," she said with a smile.
"Did I startle you," he said in a low growl.
"A little," she admitted. "I wasn't expecting you to catch up quite that fast." She smiled sweetly at him, wriggled from his grasp and entered her room.
"Amanda, what do you mean you didn't expect me to catch up quite that fact? Did you want me to catch up?" He said as he entered right behind her. Amanda silently closed the door behind them, locking it them sliding the chain in place. She smiled seductively at him as she brushed past him, removing the sparkly jacket as she made her way through the suite and into her own room. A thought struck him just then that she'd wanted him to chase her. That thought made him want to leave just out of stubborn pride, but he was too intrigued by her behavior to let his pride get the best of him. He let out a deep sigh, knowing that she'd left him with no choice but to follow her to see where this led. He crept up to the doorway of her room and noticed that she'd slung the jacket across the bed and had removed her heels and her jewelry.
"What took you so long?" she teased as he entered the room taking his jacket and tie from his hands, tossing them across the bed before returning to face him, closing the door firmly behind him.
"What took-" Lee found he couldn't even finish the sentence. Seeing the mischievous gleam in her eyes, he no longer had any doubt of her reasoning for luring him up here. When she began to use her nimble fingers to slowly unbutton his shirt, kissing each patch of skin she exposed as she worked her way down roughly yanking the tails of it from his pants, he whispered low, "Why, Amanda King, are you trying to seduce me?"
"Yes," She answered honestly, as she knelt to open his pants stroking him softly causing him to twitch in her hands. "Is it working?" she purred just before she took him into her mouth.
"Oh, God, yes," Lee groaned as she worked her mouth along his shaft, making him painfully erect. He resisted the urge to thrust into her mouth; anxious to see where she was planning to take this, since she'd very obviously set him up. He closed his eyes, leaned his head back against the door, and let out a shuddering sigh as his hands tangled in her hair while she suckled him gently, exerting just enough pressure to get him going, but not enough to get him coming. Not wanting a repeat of the fiasco in London, he only let her continue for a moment longer before he clasped her hands, pulled her to her feet and kissed her passionately teasing her lips with his tongue, delighted when she opened to him.
Amanda moaned into Lee's mouth as he delved into her with his tongue, while his hands slid under the thin top she wore. She then felt him turning her around and pinning her against the door just before he broke their kiss and stared at her. "What," she said a little startled by his intense scrutiny of her.
"You, Amanda King, are a brutal tease," Lee growled.
She smiled and said, "How am I a tease? I was perfectly willing to finish what I started," she said as she pushed his shirt from his shoulder and ran her fingernails down his bare chest and back up again, knowing that particular move would set him off again.
"That is how you are a tease," Lee said glancing down at her hands on his chest. "Well, I've got news for you, two can play at that game," He added as he slid his hands to her knees running his hands up the inside of her thighs and then back down again repeating the movement.
"Oh, that's just mean," Amanda said with a frustrated sigh.
"Maybe you should have borrowed the gown instead of the pants, after all," Lee said as he repeated the movement again.
"Well, I didn't know what we might be getting into. I thought it was better to be comfortable," Amanda said.
"How very practical of you," Lee replied.
"Besides, there's no way that I could've filled that dress out as well as Francine would have. She's a bit bustier than I am."
"No, Amanda, you're wrong," Lee said as he tugged the sparkly top over her head and grasped one breast with each hand. "You've have filled it out just fine," He lightly thumbed her nipples causing her to gasp. "Besides," he added as he lowered his mouth to nip at her earlobe while he continued to caress her bare breasts, "You know what they say, more than a handful's a waste." He then lightly nuzzled her neck and murmured low against her skin, "you do look amazing in blue, though.'
Increasingly frustrated by his teasing of her, she decided to take action, sweeping her leg behind both of his, knocking him flat on his back just before she pounced n him, kissing him feverishly as she pressed the entire length of her body against his. Lee pulled back from her kiss, startled at finding the wind knocked out of him, both by her maneuver to knock him to the floor and by her heated kisses. "Where the hell did you learn to do that?"
"Well, I had a lot of time on my hands over the summer while you were trying to track down The Mongoose and Billy did agree to let me take a few self-defense courses, remember?"
"Right, after you asked if you should know how to hit. I'll tell you something, you sure no how to hit me where it hurts," he said as he pushed his hips up against her. "How'd you get so good at that anyway?" he teased.
"I was married for ten years, remember?"
"Oh, right," Lee said, shifting nervously, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was heading. He didn't like at all the thought crossing his mind that she'd once performed oral sex on her ex-husband, a guy who clearly didn't deserve her if he'd let her get away. He decided to stifle that thought by showing her just how much she did deserve, as he rolled her beneath him and worked to slide the bright blue, satiny pants down her legs, along with her panties, then stepped out of his dress shoes, dropping his own pants and boxers. He then turned his attention back to her, kissing his way down her slender body until he reached the apex between her legs, pausing for a moment. Unable to resist teasing her just a little more, he planted a warm wet to the inside of her right then, then repeated the action on the left, suckling gently at the tender skin there.
"Lee, please," Amanda pleaded with him to end her torture.
"Please, what," he murmured against her as he placed a kiss to first one hip, then the other.
"Lee," she hissed as she grasped his head and tried to guide it to where she wanted it.
Lee looked up at her. "Uh-huh. Not until you tell me what you want me to do to you," he said in a low, husky voice feeling the need to pay her back from making him chase her. He placed a tender kiss to her flat stomach, dipping his tongue into her navel.
Amanda, pulsing with need, gasped out, "I want your mouth on me. I want you to taste me."
Looking up at her one more time, he flashed an impish grin at her. "Not exactly what I was looking for, but close enough," he said as he lowered her head between her legs and gave her what he knew she wanted, his tongue darting out to touch her. He smiled a smug smile at hearing her purr in response and lift her hips to meet him. He reached beneath her to cup her bottom as he delved deeper, delighting in the tasted of her, the scent of her arousal, her increasingly loud moans and gasps.
"OH, Lee," she cried at the exquisite sensations he was creating in her. She'd wanted him so fiercely ever since she'd first seen him after leaving the Glockenspiel with her children and he grabbed her arm. If she were truly honest with herself, she'd admit that she always wanted him. She wriggled beneath him, crying his name out louder than before as her orgasm slammed into her, leaving her trembling and gasping for breath.
"Come here," Lee growled as he rose to his knees and pulled her against him to straddle him, slowly pushing himself into her as he did so, tickled to feel her locking her legs behind him.
"Lee," Amanda hissed as she braced her hands on his shoulders and pushed against him driving him deeper.
"Amanda," He whispered as he looked into her eyes wondering just what other mysteries lay behind them. It seemed that every time he thought he knew her, she did something else to surprise him. He'd have never imagined that she'd lead him on a chase the hotel suite that she was sharing with her family. Her shared space with her family had always been off-limits. He pressed his lips to hers, slid his hands to her hips and no more words were spoken as they moved against each other. He pushed upward while she pushed downward, locked in motion together until they were both crying out each other's names and sat shaking against one another, lavishing each other with soft kisses while they came down from their high together. When Lee had finally caught his breath enough to speak again, he said, "You know, I'm the one who's supposed to disappear on you, not the other way around."
Amanda giggled and said, "Well, I couldn't resist giving you a taste of your own medicine. Besides, I knew you'd find me and I wanted to get you alone."
"Oh? How'd you know that I'd want to find you?"
"I just knew," Amanda said smiling sweetly as she extracted herself from his arms and rose to pick up her scattered clothes.
"What are you doing?" Lee said in surprise at her abrupt departure from his arms.
Amanda tossed the clothes on the bed and answered, "Well, I really need to get cleaned up and go meet my family."
"Oh, right," Lee said as he rose to his feet and began to gather up his own clothes, "and I...uh...I should go check in with Billy and make sure everything's taken care of."
"Yeah, you probably should," Amanda said a little disappointed that he hadn't asked to join her in the shower again.
"Yeah," he said as he began to get dressed, feeling downhearted that she hadn't invited him to share her shower after the way she'd led him on. "By the way, did you ever figure out what you're going to tell your mother about where you were last night?"
"I think I'll just tell her I was with you," Amanda said.
"Very funny," Lee said with a sigh.
"I'm not being funny," Amanda said. "Mother's known about you for months."
"What? Amanda, you can't-"
"Relax, Lee," Amanda said cutting him off. "She doesn't know who you are or what you do. She just knows that I have a...a...lover that she'd never met."
"Oh? When did this happen?"
"I told you when we were trying to rescue Scotty and Raul that she thought I was having a clandestine love affair, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember," Lee said. "So?"
"So...I...uh...just decided to go with it and let her keep believing that that's what's been going on in my life. It's a lot easier than trying to explain about the agency or make up a bunch of lies to not explain about the agency. Besides, it's not as if I'm lying to her. I mean, you and I...we...uh...we've had this thing going on for a little over a year now."
"Thing?"Lee said in amusement. "You mean our clandestine love affair?" he added with a chuckle.
"You know what I mean, Lee. Besides, I don't think either of us knows what to call it. I mean, we're obviously attracted to each other or we wouldn't keep...But we...we're not a couple...we're not dating...I can't bring you home to meet my family."
"Right," Lee said swallowing hard. He knew that she was just being honest and everything she said was accurate, but he was surprised by how much it hurt to hear her say the words aloud. "You know, I should...uh..." He gestured to the door.
"Yeah, and I should...uh..." she gestured to the bathroom door disappointment flooding through her that he hadn't corrected her evaluation of what they were to each other.
"So...I...uh...I'll see you later," Lee said as he draped his jacket over his arm, his hand poised on the doorknob, hoping she'd stop him.
"Yeah, later," Amanda said quickly heading into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.
"Later," Lee said as he exited her room filled with a deep sense of longing.
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When Lee made it to his rendezvous point, he found only Francine and a couple of other agents. "Hey, Francine, where's Billy?"
"Getting Haddy Kemp on a plane," Francine answered. "He's been giving us some great information. I'm surprised you didn't want to ask him some questions yourself."
"I...um...I had some...other things to take care of," Lee said.
"Things involving a certain housewife, maybe?"Francine inquired with an arched eyebrow. "So, what are you two going steady now?"
"Can it, Francine," Lee said not in the mood for her acid tongue after his encounter with Amanda.
"Oh, come on, Lee, I saw that little gesture when she was worried about Haddy getting back to his son, when you put your arm around her, not to mention the way she looked at you with those doe eyes."
"I was just trying to comfort her. This case hit her a little hard since she has two sons of her own."
"That's all it was?" Francine said archly, not quite believing it.
"That's all it was, Francine," Lee said trying to sound more chipper about it than he felt. The truth was, he just liked putting his arms around Amanda and would use any excuse he could to do it.
"Oh, okay," Francine said disbelievingly. "Then how about this one? Just before you took off to stop the Baron, explain to me why the two of you were holding hands like a pair of teenagers at prom."
"Again, that was just a comforting gesture because she was worried about her family."
"I see," Francine said. "Well, I'd be careful if I were with those comforting gestures of yours. She's clearly infatuated with you and she's not one of your little playmates that you can just get some and get gone with."
"Believe me, Francine, that is not my intention with Amanda," Lee said, "Furthest thing from my mind." He definitely wanted more with Amanda than just to "get some and get gone" though that's how it always seemed to end up. Either she was bolting on him or he had to disappear. Lee sighed as he thought about the fact that while they'd been sleeping together for over a year, they'd never truly slept together. In fact, they'd never even made it to a bed at all.
"Good," Francine said.
"Good, now can we talk about the case?"
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"Mother, there really is a good reason why I didn't come home last night," Amanda tried to explain.
"I'm sure there is, Dear," Dotty said sounding bored.
"Well, there really is," Amanda said.
"Yes, Honey, you're a big girl, you don't owe me any explanation."
"Thank you, Mother," Amanda said sighing in relef.
Amanda's relief was short-lived when her mother said, "But you could have called."
"I should have," Amanda conceded.
"Yeah, but you didn't," Dotty reminded her.
"I was tied up," Amanda said with a slight smile as she remembered Lee's words to her when they were literally tied up.
"Amanda, look, if you don't have your memories, you don't have anything," Dotty said with a knowing smile.
"Mother, it's not what you're thinking," Amanda said.
Dotty fixed her with an icy glare and said, "You're too young to know what I'm thinking." As Amanda made an excuse to leave the table saying she was going to take some pictures, she watched her closely as she walked by a table where a lone man was sitting with his back to them. Her eagle eyes caught the fact that as soon as her daughter walked by him, he rose from his seat and locked step with her as she walked. While she couldn't really see what he looked like from this angle since they were walking away from her, she knew he was the same man she'd caught a glimpse of leaving the house and seen on the patio with her when she'd peered out through the boys' window. She craned her neck to try to get a better look at him, but they continued to move away from her view. "That certainly explains a lot," she muttered to herself.
"What are you talking about, Grandma," Phillip asked.
"Oh, nothing, Darling," Dotty said though she couldn't help but smile as she looked at her grandchildren. She turned back to her newspaper, wondering since this love affair had been going on for so long, if he might not someday be a stepfather to them.
